Dogen Mind Quotations

If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil.

You should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.

Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.

To escape from the world means that one's mind is not concerned with the opinions of the world.

If he cannot stop the mind that seeks after fame and profit, he will spend his life without finding peace.

What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.

Do not arouse disdainful mind when you prepare a broth of wild grasses; do not arouse joyful mind when you prepare a fine cream soup.

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

Look for Buddha outside your own mind, and Buddha becomes the devil.

Learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest.

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly.

Studying the Buddha way is studying oneself. Studying oneself is forgetting oneself. Forgetting oneself is being enlightened by all things. Being enlightened by all things is to shed the body-mind of oneself, and those of others. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this traceless enlightenment continues endlessly.

To study the Way is to study the Self. To study the Self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever